Barnes & Noble Reports Holiday Sales Results

“We entered the holiday with two great new products, NOOK HD and NOOK
HD+, both highly rated media tablets of phenomenal quality”

The Retail segment, which consists of the Barnes & Noble bookstores and
BN.com businesses, had revenues of $1.2 billion, decreasing 10.9% over
the prior year. This decrease was attributable to an 8.2% decline in
comparable store sales, store closures and lower online sales. Core
comparable store sales, which exclude sales of NOOK products, decreased
3.1% as compared to the prior year due to lower bookstore traffic. Sales
of NOOK products in the Retail segment declined during the holiday
period due to lower unit volume and average selling prices.

While Retail sales of NOOK products fell short of the company’s
expectations, bookstore sales of core products exceeded the company’s
expectations, and therefore, the company continues to expect fiscal year
2013 Retail comparable bookstore sales to decline on a percentage basis
in the low- to mid-single digits.

The NOOK segment, which consists of the company’s digital business
(including Readers, digital content and accessories), had revenues of
$311 million for the nine-week holiday period, decreasing 12.6% as
compared to a year ago. Digital content sales increased 13.1%, while
NOOK device unit sales declined during the holiday period as compared to
the prior year. Digital content sales are defined to include digital
books, digital newsstand, and the apps business.

"We entered the holiday with two great new products, NOOK HD and NOOK
HD+, both highly rated media tablets of phenomenal quality," said
William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "NOOK
device sales got off to a good start over the Black Friday period, but
then fell short of expectations for the balance of holiday. We are
examining the root cause of the December shortfall in sales, and will
adjust our strategies accordingly going forward."

As a result of the NOOK sales shortfall, the company now expects fiscal
year 2013 NOOK Media revenues of approximately $3 billion, and NOOK
segment EBITDA losses at a comparable level to fiscal year 2012.

The Company has made significant investments over the past three years
building the valuable NOOK digital retailing platform, which has
resulted in millions of digital customers buying content from Barnes &
Noble. The company's digital strategy will continue to center around
delivering the best digital reading, shopping and content experience in
the market, while also being diligent about calibrating expenses to
business trends in order to scale the business to profitability over
time.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. will report second quarter results on or about
February 19, 2013.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is a Fortune 500 company and the leading
retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The company
operates 689 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the
Web’s largest e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com).
Its NOOK Media LLC subsidiary is a leader in the emerging digital
reading and digital education markets. The NOOK digital business offers
award-winning NOOK® products and an expansive collection of digital
reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store™ (www.nook.com),
while Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC operates 674 bookstores
serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and
universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble is proud to be
named a J.D. Power and Associated 2012 Customer Service Champion and is
only one of 50 U.S. companies so named. Barnes & Noble.com is ranked the
number one online retailer in customer satisfaction in the book, music
and video category and a Top 10 online retailer overall in customer
satisfaction according to ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index (Spring
Top 100 Edition).

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the
Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements (within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) and
information relating to Barnes & Noble that are based on the beliefs of
the management of Barnes & Noble as well as assumptions made by and
information currently available to the management of Barnes & Noble.
When used in this communication, the words "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "will" and similar expressions,
as they relate to Barnes & Noble or the management of Barnes & Noble,
identify forward-looking statements.

Such statements reflect the current views of Barnes & Noble with respect
to future events, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks,
including, among others, the general economic environment and consumer
spending patterns, decreased consumer demand for Barnes & Noble's
products, low growth or declining sales and net income due to various
factors, risk that international expansion will not be successfully
achieved or may be achieved later than expected, possible disruptions in
Barnes & Noble's computer systems, telephone systems or supply chain,
possible risks associated with data privacy, information security and
intellectual property, possible work stoppages or increases in labor
costs, possible increases in shipping rates or interruptions in shipping
service, effects of competition, possible risks that inventory in
channels of distribution may be larger than able to be sold, possible
risk that returns from consumers or channels of distribution may be
greater than estimated, the risk that the expected sales lift from
Borders’ store closures is not achieved in whole or part, the risk that
digital sales growth is less than expectations and the risk that it does
not exceed the rate of investment spend, higher-than-anticipated store
closing or relocation costs, higher interest rates, the performance of
Barnes & Noble's online, digital and other initiatives, the performance
and successful integration of acquired businesses, the success of Barnes
& Noble's strategic investments, unanticipated increases in merchandise,
component or occupancy costs, unanticipated adverse litigation results
or effects, product and component shortages, the potential adverse
impact on the business resulting from the review of a potential
separation of the NOOK digital business, the risk that the transactions
with Microsoft do not achieve the expected benefits for the parties
including the risk that NOOK Media LLC’s applications are not
commercially successful or that the expected distribution of those
applications is not achieved, the risk that any subsequent spin-off,
split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in NOOK
Media LLC results in adverse impacts on Barnes & Noble or NOOK Media LLC
(including as a result of termination of agreements and other adverse
impacts), the potential impact on Barnes & Noble’s retail business of
the separation, the potential tax consequences for Barnes & Noble and
its shareholders of a subsequent spin-off, split-off or other
disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in NOOK Media LLC, the
risk that the international expansion contemplated by the relationship
or otherwise is not successful or is delayed, the risk that NOOK Media
LLC is not able to perform its obligations under the commercial
agreement, including with respect to the development of applications and
international expansion, and the consequences thereof, the costs and
disruptions arising out of any such separation of the NOOK digital and
College businesses, the risk that Barnes & Noble may not recoup its
investments in the NOOK digital business as part of any separation
transaction, the risks, difficulties, and uncertainties that may result
from the separation of businesses that were previously co-mingled
including necessary ongoing relationships, and potential for adverse
customer impacts and other factors which may be outside of Barnes &
Noble’s control, including those factors discussed in detail in Item 1A,
"Risk Factors," in Barnes & Noble's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form
10-K/A, and in Barnes & Noble's other filings made hereafter from time
to time with the SEC. Our forward-looking statements relating to
international expansion are also subject to the following risks, among
others that may affect the introduction, success and timing of the NOOK
e-reader and content in countries outside the United States: we may not
be successful in reaching agreements with international companies, the
terms of agreements that we reach may not be advantageous to us, our
NOOK device may require technological changes to comply with applicable
laws, and marketplace acceptance and other companies have already
entered the marketplace with products that have achieved some customer
acceptance.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or
should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or
outcomes may vary materially from those described as anticipated,
believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned. Subsequent written
and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Barnes & Noble or
persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety
by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. Barnes & Noble
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise after the date of this communication.

Recent Stories

NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced a LEGO® build experience on Saturday, October 7, in celebration of the re... more »

NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced an impressive event lineup for the month of October to head into the holi... more »

NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced the list of must-have books for the fall and fast-approaching holiday sea... more »